RUI: The Role of Sleep in Infant Motor Problem Solving

Cuny College Of Staten Island, Staten Island NY

Investigators

Abstract

Infants need frequent periods of rest or sleep for their physical and emotional well-being. Sleep also plays a very important role in learning and memory. Sleep helps babies to solidify newly learned information in their memories, a process known as consolidation. The goal of this project is to study the role of sleep in motor learning — acquiring a new skill involving physical coordination of movement. The results will provide important insights into how the quality and timing of infants’ sleep influences their ability to process new information and consolidate new motor problem-solving abilities. The proposed work bridges three areas of research: cognitive development, motor development, and sleep. Infants who have just begun to sit independently will learn to solve a novel reaching task. Following the task, infants will experience a delay that includes an enhanced motor training after which some will nap and others will not. The impact of napping will be assessed. A home video baby monitoring system that documents characteristics of infants’ sleep via computer-vision technology will provide “video from the crib” and will be employed to assess individual differences in quality of sleep and how they relate to solving the novel motor problem. Measuring sleep prior to training and the following night will permit investigation of the unique contributions of day and night sleep to learning in infancy. A comparison group of infants born pre-term will allow for the investigation into whether the relation between sleep and learning is compromised in infants at risk for sleep disorders, for reduced capacity for focused attention, and for motor delay. The proposed research should ultimately provide guidelines for balancing enriched learning experiences, interventions for at-risk populations, and a protective environment that promotes rest and regulation. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.